Inchcape Fleet Solutions plugs into electric vehicles

The Portsmouth-based vehicle leasing and fleet management company has just completed a trial of a Peugeot eExpert developed by Glasgow-based Allied Electric, part of the Allied Vehicles Group. The zero-emission vehicle is one of only two built so far, is based on the Peugeot Expert van, and has a range of up to 70 miles on a single charge and a top speed of 70 mph.

Inchcape Fleet Solutions has already evaluated a number of other electric vehicles, including light commercial vehicles from Smith Electric Vehicles based on the Ford range, the Mitsubishi i-MIEV city car, which has just gone on sale in the UK, the MINI E and Tata's electric vehicles.

The company also tested a prototype of the Nissan Leaf towards the end of April, which is due to go on sale in the UK in 2012.

Terry Bartlett, managing director of Inchcape Fleet Solutions said: 'We anticipate that electric vehicles will play a significant part in the operation of many fleets in the future.

'As one of the UK's leading providers of vehicles to the public and private sectors we have a desire and an appetite to embrace new vehicle technology, and that includes electric vehicles, which is why we are gathering as much data on models as we can through our own evaluation.

'A number of our utility and public sector fleet clients have expressed an interest in electric vehicles and almost every tender document that we respond to asks us to advise on the fleet feasibility of electric vehicles. It is therefore vital that we have the knowledge and expertise to inform clients on the potential use of zero emission vehicles.'